𝙟𝙚𝙙𝙞 /ˈ𝙙ʒɛ𝙙ʌɪ/ 𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙣 | 𝙖 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙠𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧, 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙣𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚

𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘢 /ˈⱱ𝘢ɹɛɨ𝘯𝘢 / 𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯 | 𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘱𝘰𝘥 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘱, 𝘩𝘶𝘣 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘮𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺

𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙟𝙖𝙜𝙤 /ˈɳɪɳʝɑɢʊ/ 𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙣 | 𝙖 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙩 𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙡𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙯𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙤𝙧, 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙖𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙣 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚, 𝙙𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚, 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨

𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘫𝘦𝘥𝘪 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 /ˈɛ𝘭ɪˈ𝘮ɛ𝘯𝘵(ə)𝘭 𝙙ʒɛ𝙙ʌɪ mɑːstə/ 𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯 | 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 : 𝘸𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘨𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘯 [𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵]

———

"YOU GARMADON TWINS better get your asses back here, right now, before I call your parents!"

"Hey, what'd we do?"

"You destroyed my water vaps which means I can't water my crops for two weeks! I'm going to be run down by all my other competitors."

Astra rolled her eyes with a huff. "We all know you horde all the good spots during market week, Helly."

Lloyd's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. Playing the prank on harmless old Helly next door was fun, but further provoking the old guy who used to work in the Republic army? Plain stupid. "Sorry, uh, we'll be goin' now, sir."

"When are you two coming back to fix this?" Helly demanded, thumping his staff on the sand-dusted ground impatiently. "Twins!"

But Lloyd was already dragging Astra away as she stuck out her tongue childishly. Hands covered in slick grease and oil from messing with Helly's vaps, Lloyd nearly lost grip on the younger twin every five seconds.

"Oh, cool it, Lloyd. Helly's a harmless old fool."

"Yeah, a freaking Republic Army old fool. At some point, enough's gonna be 'nuff for him."

"I can't wait 'til we're off this stupid rock," Astra muttered lowly, kicking at the ground. "Everything is boring here."

"I doubt it. Unless we get a scholarship, Lils, Vareena is home sweet home." Lloyd sighed, sweeping blonde fringe out of his eyes. "We better get home before Ma makes us fix our own vaps."

Astra turned to him with incredulous eyes. "I thought we only planned to do Helly's, Nala's, Mare's, AJ's, the Smith out-farms, and—"

"Wasn't me, swear on the Third Moon." Lloyd threw up his hands and pointed towards the sun right above them, where the third moon on their planet would normally be at night. "I think Kai and Nya snuck in during the day when we were working on the farms."

"Pa's gonna be pissed, then," his sister sighed. "Wish we lived with Kai and Nya."

"What, in a big fancy house with maids and alveen servants? Nothing special 'bout our family, that's for sure."

"Still, it would be kinda nice. Maybe one day..." Astra trailed off with another despondent sigh.

The twins walked in silence down the road, waving hello to some of their neighbours. Only some shook their fists at them - presumably for their latest prank, but it was good-natured after Nala handed them sand crescent buns to take home. Five minutes later, Astra and Lloyd were squabbling on the doorstep of the Garmadon residence.

"Kids, get inside!" Misako called from the living room. Astra pushed Lloyd off the doorstep and then barrelled indoors clutching the crescent buns.

"You're such a bully." he groaned to himself, flapping out the sand in his tunic. The multitude of layers to help keep the sun from burning their skin collected sand by the second. Walking through the domed stone roof of their house, Lloyd replaced his wrist bindings in favour of rubbing salve over some of the burned spots. He could hear the clattering from Astra's rushed table setting in the kitchen, the tap gushing water for what was presumably cabbage soup - again - and his father pottering around the small house garden.

The Garmadons were nothing special.

Montgomery Garmadon was a farmer everyone liked. He was fair, didn't let cattle out to trample other people's plants (Helly), taught some of the less fortunate kids to read and lived a mildly boring life. Lloyd's mother Misako was equally kind and was a proper teacher at the local elementary school, occasionally helping out at the market whilst running her own side businesses in scroll markings.

On Vareena, scroll markings were incredibly important. A lot of people believed in superstitions and liked to have scrolls hanging over their doorways to ward against evil, and quote-unquote, the 'Dark' side. Lloyd sometimes helped his mother cut out parchment for her markings whilst Astra helped their father out in the farms. The Garmadon twins were generally known as the rascals of Mark 42, their neighbourhood on Vareena.

Subsections from Mark 40 to 70 were normally farmers. The closer you were to the number 0, the richer you were. Lloyd's best friends Kai and Nya lived in Mark 12. Their parents were pretty important and they were set to go to a fancy school, and in his twin's words, 'get off this stupid rock'. It was a pretty clear line for social classes in Vareena. The richer you were, the more interesting of a life you led. Astra wasn't really happy stuck here, but Lloyd was cool with it.

He was pretty content with sticking in Mark 40's, maybe someday a Mark 25 neighbourhood, but that was in the future. He was fifteen and wasn't particularly focused on his future. Lots of farming, probably. Life on Vareena was pretty much the same every day, an endless routine you got used to. Wake up early, do some farming, maybe head out to the market, have lunch, farm again, get in trouble, walk home, dine and sleep.

A very unremarkable life, but one he was content with living.

"Ma, Nala gave us sand crescent buns on the way home. I'm thinking we could eat half and then I could turn the others into this bun-pudding I've been meanin' to try for a while." Astra suggested, passing the beans to their father.

Misako pursed her lips and nodded. "Kids, we have an announcement of sorts to make. Involving all of us."

"Whatever it was, Astra did it," Lloyd immediately said through a mouthful of soup. "Wasn't even my idea to mess with Helly."

"You messed with Helly?" Misako sighed, rubbing her temples. "I'm going grey because of you two."

"Water vaps are easy to fix," Astra protested, "And he stole Pa's spot at the market yesterday."

"Well, the behaviour's going to have to stop," Montgomery echoed his wife's sigh. "We're moving."

Lloyd's eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. "M—moving?"

"When? Why? Where?" Astra nearly knocked over her cup in excitement. "I'll start packing."

Montgomery pulled his daughter back to her seat, chuckling at her enthusiasm. "I didn't know we lived such boring, monotonous lives for you to be that excited by a little move."

"Little? Like, to a different Mark?" She looked slightly less enthused, but a strange switch was flipped inside of her and her expression turned turbulent.

"Higher or lower?" Lloyd voiced, still not quite sure what to think of the situation. Moving...they hadn't moved since, ever. Life on Vareena was stagnant, and like his father said, monotonous. Life didn't change here since it wasn't meant to change.

"Little...as in, a different planet," Misako revealed with a smile. "It's a big change, I know, but we'll get through this together."

"To answer your questions, Astra, two weeks. And it's because your mother and I have been called in by an old friend to teach."

"Who?" the twins chorused in unison.

"Your Uncle Wu."

"Uncle Wu...as in, Morro's dad?"

"Yes, my brother. He's been given permission to start a school for extraordinary apprentices."

"Extraordinary apprentices?"

His father and his mother glanced at each other. "Extraordinary Jedi apprentices."

A/N: not much to say, the a/n got it all!

- dommie out